Moments So Dear
by Her Is In Hero
Summary: Her timer comes into bright existence (the hazel-brown colour of her Soulmates eyes) when she's 5 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, and 4 days old.


Barbara Morse is born without a timer!

That's not such an unusual occurrence since about 50% of the world is born without a timer, an indication that they are the older of the pair. Her timer comes into bright existence (the hazel-brown colour of her Soulmates eyes) when she's 5 years, 1 month, 3 weeks, and 4 days old. The numbers are years now, just stating that she'd meet her Soulmate in 26 years. Even though she's only 5, she's smart enough to know that means she'll meet her Soulmate when she's 31 and that seems like an awfully long time to the small blonde.

Her timer still reads 20 years when Bobbi has first kiss with a boy named Nicholas in 8th grade (because she was smart enough to skip 2 grades by 11). The numbers tick by agonisingly slowly, and her parents say it will be that way until the number reaches less than a decade. After the awkward kiss, in which Nicholas' hands are sweaty, and she doesn't know what to do with her own so they hang limply at her sides, she sees his timer. Already down to less than 10 years and showing the months now as well.

Bobbi knows how it goes from her parents' telling of their own timers counting down to each other; it starts with years, usually decades worth, but on rare occasions much less. Once it gets to less than 10 years it will start counting months as well, starting with 9 years and 11 months. Weeks start being counted once it gets under a year (11 months and 4 weeks). Within a month of meeting her Soulmate she'll start seeing days, and eventually... hours, minutes and finally seconds!

Nicholas is counting 7 years and 4 months when they share their first awkward kiss at age 11, Bobbi still has 20 years. She's a little jealous that he doesn't have to wait as long.

When Bobbi's timer is at 12 years she is 18 ( nearly 19) and halfway through a Double doctorate in Biology and Chemistry when she is recruited to the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. It's a mouthful of a name and that's one of the first things she tells the Agent recruiting her, he just laughs and says they're working on it.

She's started noticing timers more and more lately; the mans timer is a faded series of 10 zeroes meaning her already met his Soulmate. Two zeroes to represent each of the years, months, weeks, days (only 1 zero for days and weeks since the days could only be 6 and less), hours, minutes, and seconds. The faded zeroes on his forearm keep her attention until he mentions that she'll be able to finish her degrees with the mysterious, overly-long named Agency.

Her timer goes under 10 years the same month that she gets her first solo mission.

She doesn't notice her timer has started counting months until it's 9 years and 8 months in February. It takes her breath away when she finally notices because she started waiting 21 years when she was 5 and now she has less than ten year. She and Izzy go out to drink to celebrate that night.

Bobbi Morse's timer still has 6 years and 4 months when she meets Lance Hunter.

It's 6 years and 2 months when he tells her he loves her.

It's 5 years and 11 months when she says she love him.

Lance's timer is a few months ahead of hers with 5 years and 2 months to go with her 5 years and 8 months when he proposes.

Soulmates don't have to mean a romantic bond is both of their reasonings when he asks and she says yes and suddenly they're engaged despite the multitude of issues between them.

With 5 years and 3 months until she meets her Soulmate, Bobbi says I Do!

She loves Lance! She really does! And she knows he loves her as well, but they are a disaster together. Bobbi can't tell him things because they're classified, she can't always be home for dinner at night (or even home at all some nights depending on the mission), and Lance doesn't like that, he doesn't like sharing his wife with her work and not even getting to know what her work is.

They argue.

They fight.

Bobbi's timer has 2 years and 8 months left when she signs the divorce papers.

00:11:03 is Bobbi's timer when she realises it's under a year. She's missed it being under a year for over a week! In her defence she's been fighting HYDRA, taking back the Iliad, mourning her dead friends, and cursing her traitorous ones for turning on them, so she thinks that a good excuse.

Bobbi doesn't dare mention it to Izzy in that moment because he best friend has just found out that her own Soulmate (Victoria Hand) was murdered and she's distraught.

With 9 months and 4 weeks Bobbi, Izzy, Idaho, and Mack are recruited to Coulson's S.H.I. . Izzy, Idaho, and Mack go to Coulson's base with a promise to check that Hunter is okay when they get a chance, whilst Bobbi is sent undercover in HYDRA to keep an eye on one of Coulson's kids and gather her own intel.

She's down to 5 months and 1 week when Mack calls and says Izzy and Idaho are dead. At least Izzy doesn't have to live without Tori anymore.

It occurs to Bobbi that Hunter's timer would have run out by now and it makes her heart ache a little. She never asks Mack who it is.

Jemma Simmons is the worst liar in the world, Bobbi determines when she meets the younger scientist when she's still got 3 months and 0 weeks to go until she meets her own Soulmate.

At Coulson's base she finally meets his team, and sees Hunter for the first time since the divorce, and Mack for the time since the Iliad, and Hunters Soulmate is a S.H.I.E.L.D Legacy, the grandson of a Howling Commando with a bright smile that she vaguely recalls being at the Academy with.

It's not a pairing she would have expected but despite the ache it causes in her heart she's happy for them both.

2 months 1 week; they're chasing down a man who claims to be Skye's father.

1 month 0 weeks: Her reports to Gonzales are increasingly worrisome over Coulson's mental health.

2 weeks 4 days; Bobbi notices that her timer has gone under a month. She's really not good at keep track of it, she's been late to notice every single one of the timer milestones to date. With her luck she'll missing the timer running out completely.

00:00:00:2:13 Bobbi barely spares her timer a second glance as the earth starts moving.

Literally! It's an earthquake that sends her and Hunter scrambling for cover in San Juan.

1 day and 22 hours on her timer and Hunter shows up at her bunk, distraught. They'd had to comb through rubble and bodies and he'd been searching for Trip in the chaos. He tells her that Skye told him why his timer was all but faded away, the numbers slowly slipping away from him no matter what he did.

Trip was gone!

1 day 3 hours, they make it to base and it's a flurry of activity as everyone races to figure out what happened in San Juan and how to fix it.

19 hours, 16 minutes. Bobbi doesn't know how to comfort someone whose Soulmate just died. No-one does. Hunter drinks more than he should, but no-one stops him because he doesn't have Trip anymore and it's the worst possible pain someone could go through.

3 hours, 24 minutes. Simmons goes back to San Juan to head up the research and destruction of the underground city. Fitz is in the lab, Lance is distraught, Coulson is throwing himself into work, May is watching over Coulson, Mack has been cleared from quarantine pretty quickly, Skye is still in quarantine after being down in the tunnels with whatever turned Trip to stone.

46 minutes, 18 seconds: the Cactus Cooler numbs her fingers as she takes it from her secret stash in the back of the fridge behind the broccoli.

The spot on Bobbi's forearm burns harshly as she steps just outside the quarantine area with her special survival kit to help Skye through the process. Bobbi's blue eyes are drawn to the numbers to find a series of zeroes staring back at her. 00:00:0:0:00:00:00 they seem to glow bright for a few moments and she stares in wonder as the numbers settle into a light hazel-brown.

It takes another few moments of stunned silence until Bobbi realises her timer has run out and therefore her Soulmate is with her somewhere.

The only person in the vicinity is Skye, on the other side of the quarantine glass, staring at her arm in shock and wonder. The glass is cool under Bobbi's fingertips as she presses her hand to it, and Skye looks up with wide eyes.

"Skye?" The name on her lips is barely a breath, afraid to hope that her Soulmate might be right in front of her. She's met Skye before, they've talked, hung out, it doesn't make sense in her brain, but her heart is racing and she swears the glass heats between their hands when Skye puts her own hand on her side of the glass and Bobbi can see the same zeroes on the other woman's arm in the blue that she knows matches her eyes.

"Bobbi?" The hope and fear in her voice as her hazel-brown eyes stare back at her tells her all she needs to know.


End file.
